The 22nd installment of the best-selling series features 21 GRAMMY-nominated artists and hit songs from the world’s biggest superstars and hottest emerging talent, including Album Of The Year nominees Alabama Shakes, Kendrick Lamar, Chris Stapleton, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd, as well as Best New Artist nominees Courtney Barnett, James Bay, Sam Hunt, Tori Kelly, and Meghan Trainor.

“This lineup of talented artists is just the beginning of what will, once again, prove to be music’s biggest night”, Recording Academy CEO Neil Portnow expressed.

“We look forward to celebrating what’s been a wonderful year in music, honouring the best of the best and featuring never-before-seen performances”.

Also taking to the stage is Kendrick Lamar who will perform a track from his acclaimed 2015 record To Pimp a Butterfly.

Adele, who has won 10 Grammys and last performed at the ceremony in 2012, in November released her long-awaited third album “25” which broke the record for first-week sales both in the United States and her native Britain.

The Recording Academy has finally announced who viewers can expect to see performing at this year’s Grammys which are scheduled to take place in February.

A special tribute to 2016 MusiCares Person of the Year Lionel Richie will highlight the GRAMMY winner’s wide-ranging career.

Rapper LL Cool J, known for his calm poise at the microphone, will host the Grammys for the fifth straight year.

This year’s GRAMMY telecast will also mark The Weeknd’s debut GRAMMY performance. Previously, the ceremony was not aired live in the Pacific and Mountain time zones.…

If the Vikes can top Seattle on what’s supposed to be a frigid day, they’ll take on the Cardinals in the divisional round.

But the shadow of the Cardinals and the Panthers lies over proceedings. Cam Newton threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns, and the Packers were limited to 71 rushing yards.

“Did I expect this?”

If the cost of that is that some teams received home-field advantage that didn’t deserve it, whatever that means, I think that’s a decent tradeoff for the entertainment value that we get from the divisional races. Before the season started I felt it was our strongest roster ever. Ditto for the Packers, who were blown out by the Cardinals in Week 16, with that game also being played in Arizona. The QB matchup is problematic for them, however: a rookie (AJ McCarron) against a savvy veteran (Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger). Carolina has been around only since 1995, but has consistently been one of the best recent expansion teams, winning the NFC crown in 2004 before losing the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots.

While it should come to no one’s surprise that the Cardinals emerged out of the NFC in this model used by Pro Football Weekly to measure teams efficiency and quality, the Bengals are a surprising pick.

In an ESPN Insider piece (subscription required), Field Yates has ranked his top 20 most important players in this year’s playoffs.

All of which has rather eclipsed what’s been happening in the AFC. Both were victimized by the Giants, who did not have a week off, in the division round after being regarded as hot Super Bowl contenders. Considered to be the Holy Grail of sports broadcasts, the CBS and NBC tapes of the game were either lost or recorded over and no full video version of the game has existed – until now. He was injured, then benched, then hit by performance-enhancing drug allegations (which he vehemently denies).

Seahawks’ running back Marshawn Lynch, who has missed the past eight games with an abdominal injury, is scheduled to play in the Seahawks’ wildcard playoff game at 10 a.m. on January 10 on the road against the Minnesota Vikings.

But for arguably the two greatest quarterbacks of their era, a fairy-tale ending in Santa Clara is unlikely. It would take a lot, as the Bengals need to get past a tough Steelers team that beat them in Cincy less than a month ago.

The network will broadcast “Super Bowl I: The Lost Game”, a restitching of the inaugural Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Over in the NFC, it’s a similar story. Can’t help you. Want to follow a team that wins Super Bowls more than anyone and whose only success in most any stretch of this century you want to include is surpassed only by the Patriots? This time they picked up after a spotty start, delivering that trouncing to Arizona on the final Sunday. Their run defense has been solid most of the time. But, miraculously, things settled down in mid-season.

Many of the National Football League games also will be available in Spanish on TV and digital platforms.

But that’s exactly the situation we find ourselves in as the Packers have struggled through the last few weeks of the seasons, while the Redskins have looked explosive.…

Chevrolet Malibu and Mazda Mx-5 were also competing in the final round in the vehicle segment, meanwhile Honda Pilot Elite and Nissan Titan XD were the finalists in Truck segment.

“The XC90 is a past victor of our award”, said Tony Swan, a 23-year member of the North American Car and Truck of the Year Jury.

The Volvo XC90 won the magazine’s North American Truck of the Year award.

These stand to be two of many announcements to come from the annual North American International Auto Show over the next few weeks.

“Making semi-autonomous features standard in the S90 symbolises Volvo’s commitment to autonomous driving and our Vision 2020″, said Lex Kerssemakers, president and CEO of Volvo Car USA. Sales of the XC90 more than tripled previous year to 12,777.

The press preview days for the North American International Auto Show officially kick off with the awards.

Fifty-three automotive journalists from the United States and Canada voted for the luxury SUV for being a benchmark in its segment, based on factors including innovation, comfort, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value for the dollar.

As in past years, to be eligible, a vehicle had to be new or substantially changed this year. The latest round of awards represent the 22nd consecutive year of the competition.

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The Anbar Operations Command complex and Taamim neighborhood retaken by counter-terrorism forces are strategically significant because they overlook other parts of Ramadi which are still under the militants’ control. Iraqi troops also managed to confiscate a large amount of weaponry.

Ramadi, a provincial capital in the fertile Euphrates valley just a short drive west of Baghdad, was Islamic State’s biggest conquest since previous year, and reversing it would be a major victory for the Iraqi government and its spectrum of allies that include both the United States and Iran. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Obama has not yet signed off on the Apaches and they would only be used at the request of Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. He didn’t go into details, and other officials say the Pentagon has yet to fully develop what was little more than a concept when Carter announced it last week. “So in the end, while we can enable them, we cannot substitute for them”, Carter said. “In the near term, it would be a significant undertaking that, much as we may wish otherwise, realistically, we would embark upon largely by ourselves; and it would be ceding our comparative advantage of special forces, mobility, and firepower, instead fighting on the enemy’s terms”, Carter told lawmakers.

But leaving isn’t necessarily easy.

However, he admitted that it was hard for those residents still inside the city to leave.

“We should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria”. “The insurgents have sectioned Ramadi into a group of smaller segments and do not permit the passage of civilians from one area to the other because they suspect anyone at the moment of being an informant for the security forces”, he said.

Another told CNN that most people were unable to leave due to the threat of being caught fleeing by ISIS. “The government is not proving us any guarantees that we will be safe during our trip south”.

Taken together, the comments by Dunford and Carter counter President Barack Obama’s claim that the extremists have been contained in Iraq and Syria after a $5.2 billion bombing campaign over the last 16 months. At that point, Iraqi forces had established positions in the city’s suburbs, he said. “We believe now is the time for the final push into Ramadi“.

Since overrunning Ramadi, Daesh has destroyed all the bridges around the city.

Last month, USA military personnel worked with Kurdish guerrilla commanders behind the front lines to retake the city of Sinjar in northwest Iraq.

So far, the US DoD has deployed 3,500 troops in six locations to support Iraqi security forces.

The spokesman said US airstrikes also killed Abu Maryam, an IS “enforcer and senior leader of their extortion network”, and Abu Rahman al-Tunisi, described as an IS executive officer who coordinated the transfer of information, people and weapons. Turkey is a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Col Warren said there had been an estimated 600 to 1,000 Isis fighters inside Ramadi, but officials are reluctant to predict how long it may take to reclaim the city. Mosul remains firmly in the hands of Islamic State militants.…

IonPod Portable Alkalizing Water Bottle – Official Site IonPod Alkalizing Water Bottle – What is it?

Water is more than just a beverage: proper hydration is the cornerstone of an overall healthy lifestyle. If you want to stay hydrated in the go, and want enjoy clean, alkaline water that is convenient and delicious, Ionpod is a convenient and high-quality portable water system, designed with the every day user in mind. If you supplement your health program with pH-enhanced water, having a portable water system makes it easy to maintain your good health and dietary needs wherever you are, whether in the office, running errands, or traveling. Choosing the right portable alkaline water system for your needs makes staying healthy and eating well even easier. The IonPod® system has many attractive benefits that make it a great choice for the active, health-focused consumer.

What I liked

TheIonPod® incorporates the power of a larger home alkalizing unit into a portable, design meant for those with an active lifestyle. The product is made with high-quality materials such as food-grade stainless steel and a silver mineralization filter. The materials selected to produce this system are durable, allowing you to enjoy clean, pH-enhanced water for years to come. In addition to the quality craftsmanship, this water system keeps design in mind with a sleek travel container available in an attractive stainless steel housing.
The IonPod is effective in raising the pH level of ordinary tap water in a relatively short period of time – as little as three minutes. For those who prefer a higher level of alkalinity, water can be left to stand for 10-20 minutes to further alkalize before drinking. Tests by users show that leaving water overnight in the system can raise the alkalinity to as high as 9.5 or 10 (demonstrated through the use of pH drops with a visual pH guide). While the system does not have a traditional carbon filter like the best alkaline water machines in the planet, and cannot filter out contaminants such as chlorine, it will improve the taste and mouth feel of treated tap or bottled water, which of course lends itself to better water consumption and hydration throughout the day. Users report that, after using the system for days or weeks, there is a distinguishable difference in taste when returning to regular tap or bottled water.

What I Didn’t Like

While there are very few weaknesses in the effectiveness and design of the IonPod® Portable Alkalizing Water Bottle portable water system, the capacity of the container is problematic for some. For those who consume a larger quantity of water throughout the day, the small capacity of the container may require several refills. While a larger capacity container would be nice, it does not significantly alter the effectiveness of the alkalizing filter, or the quality of the transformed water.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, the design and effectiveness of the IonPod make it a great choice for those who want to nurture their body and spirit. The packaging and attractive design make this a great gift, either for yourself or for a friend or loved one.…

A lawsuit has been filed against Rev. Peter Miqueli, accusing the pastor of stealing over $1 million in donations to support and pay for sex with his gay lover.

Fr. Peter Miqueli, who continues to work as a pastor in St. Frances de Chantal Church in the Bronx, has had a case brought against him by his current and former parishioners at two churches in New York City.

Miqueli also spent significant funds on “illicit and prescription drugs”, to the tune of $60,000 in 2012; used church funds to finance the purchase of a $264,000 New Jersey home; spent stolen funds on vacations; and was so brazen in his theft, he pinched money directly from the collection plates.

The suit seeks an end to the “truly sinful conduct” which includes the claim that the priest paid Crist $1,000 a session ‘to act out his sexual fantasies’ by role-paying where Crist was the ‘master or dominant in a BDSM relationship.’ Father Miqueli played ‘the slave, ‘ suit says.

The prostitute has been named as Keith Crist, who would be paid $1000-a-session for sadomasochistic sex with the Catholic priest.

Another scandal is hitting the Archdiocese of New York after parishioners from St. Frances de Chantal in Bronx, New York, filed a lawsuit against an alleged gay priest.

The lawsuit goes on to say that repairmen at the priest’s house often saw “several unstacked piles of cash, each approximately one foot high” scattered around the priest’s residence.

Crist hung up on a reporter and Miqueli declined to answer a call through a church receptionist.

“We can’t understand it“, said Bronx parishioner Jack Lynch.

At de Chantal, Miqueli briefly tried to have Crist serve as the parish’s new business manager, according to the complaint – only to have the Archdiocese give the boyfriend the boot after a complaint.

The lawsuit says he provided no accounting of the money and routinely deposited the cash into his own personal account at an HSBC in Hauppauge, L.I. “We suspect a scandal behind the scandal”. “This is a bad guy”, Mr Dowd said. Church members have created a petition and a Facebook page demanding Father Miqueli’s removal.

The Archdiocese said they are taking the allegations seriously and have ordered an audit of the parish. “We have asked the people making the allegations to document it, substantiate the allegations, so that if they’re true we can take the appropriate action” Zwilling said. An investigation earlier this year resulted in minor financial changes to the church’s governing. “We’re only asking them to look into our suspicions, that’s all they had to do”.

Miqueli, who has a salary of $2,545 a month, now has more than $900,000 in savings and a brokerage account, according to the court filings.…

When the Bank first made that short-term inflation forecast last month, it prompted investors to push back into late 2016 and 2017 their expectations of when the Bank was likely to finally start raising rates.

The pound’s initial decline after the meeting’s minutes were published Thursday was short-lived, and Britain’s currency swung between gains and losses versus the USA dollar for much of the afternoon.

South Korea’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low of 1.5 per cent for a sixth consecutive month on Thursday, ahead of an anticipated rate increase by the US Federal Reserve.

“Yesterday’s Bank of England minutes did not rock the boat from the November Inflation Report“, he said. If it does keep the rate unchanged, any gain in the kiwi may be limited by the prospects of a Fed hike next week, traders said.

Against the euro, the pound was also down 0.2 percent at 72.305 pence.

Inflation was below zero for the second month during October and recent data on the economy remains mixed giving the BOE some room to maintain its policy setting for the time being, said London analysts.

The only member to vote for a rate rise was Ian McCafferty, one of four external members on the panel. At the same time, policy makers have has tried to avoid the risk of triggering a selloff of Serbian assets by reducing borrowing costs too quickly.

Inflation at the consumer level was expected to rise as drops in the prices for energy and food steadily dropped out of the calculations for the consumer price index, the Bank of England explained in a statement. Societe Generale and Canada’s RBC Capital Markets and financial expert Charles Rosier have recommended selling sterling in the past week, the French bank predicting the pound may fall as low as $1.30 if voters vote in a referendum to leave the EU. “The trend should be toward at least 6-3 by now”.

United Kingdom government bonds were little changed, paring an earlier advance.

The lowest core PCE forecasts also fell over the same period, particularly for the third and fourth quarters of next year, to 0.9 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively, from 1.4 percent in earlier polls.

“The outlook for inflation reflects the balance between persistent drags from factors such as sterling and world export prices and prospective further increases in domestic cost growth”.

Governor Mark Carney and other Monetary Policy Committee members said the “material news” in the month since they had last met was that oil prices had “fallen markedly again”, which raised the likelihood of inflation staying subdued.…

“There is a requirement of success that weighs on us, we must keep it in mind during our work”, the French foreign minister stressed, noting that a “draft agreement” was to be delivered to him on Saturday. The leaders of France, Germany, Canada, Chile, Mexico and Ethiopia, as well as heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development say either taxing carbon emissions or a cap-and-trade system is the best way to mitigate climate change, the Associate Press reports.

While these informal meetings are taking place, another strand of negotiators have broad oversight of the whole package of details that will make up any agreement, attempting to steer it through to a deal, and a third strand are working on some of the important issues that will make up the package, such as financial assistance for poor countries, commitments on greenhouse gas emissions, and mechanisms for ensuring countries are accountable for meeting their targets in a transparent way.

Brandalism’s Joe Elan said: ‘By sponsoring the climate talks, major polluters such as Air France and GDF-Suez-Engie can promote themselves as part of the solution – when actually they are part of the problem’.

It said that the agreement should be as per all the principles and provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) especially equity and common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR).

However, negotiators said the nitty-gritty discussions for a hugely complex 54-page draft text, riddled with undecided clauses, were advancing too slowly. “At some point, we definitely need to switch gear”. Negotiators say that the French, who have put a massive diplomatic effort into the past year of preparations, are acutely aware of the risk that any agreement will be foiled not by a lack of political will to forge a deal, but by being bogged down in the unwieldy details of the text.

“I remain confident that it will be a hard fought two weeks but at the end of the day we are likely to achieve, and I believe we will achieve, an agreement”, Australian Environment Minister Greg Hunt told reporters.

“I think our dialogue with India and the plan that they have produced and some of the cooperation that we are undertaking on clean energy comes from people’s recognition that much of what the president has set in motion here in the United States is going to be enduring”, she said.

Touching on the rich-poor issue, British charity Oxfam issued a study saying the wealthiest 10 percent of people produce half of Earth’s fossil-fuel emissions, while the poorest half contribute a mere 10 percent.

But she said the biggest gap was over climate finance.

At the core of the talks is the goal of limiting warming to a maximum of 2ºC (3.6ºF) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

“We can be even more ambitious”.

Since then, scientists have pounded out an ever-louder warning that relentlessly climbing carbon emissions will doom future generations to rising seas and worsening floods, storms and drought – a recipe for hunger, disease and homelessness for many millions.…

The Philippine president also slammed China’s reclamation works in disputed waters.

He then urged his fellow ASEAN leaders to develop a post-2015 ASEAN Connectivity Agenda “that articulates both our aspirations and the complexities we have to contend with”.

Meeting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on the sidelines of the Summit, Modi said the two countries should raise their strategic coordination to tackle the threat of terror.

The two leaders shook hands and smiled broadly Saturday as their delegations watched on.

Obama described them as outstanding and courageous people.

“The United States is working…to uphold the freedom of navigation and ensure disputes in the region are resolved peacefully”, he said.

The Prime Minister acknowledged the Japanese Prime Minister’s vision for the bilateral relationship, and said he looks forward to the visit of Mr. Shinzo Abe to India.

Noting that science, technology and innovation constituted a vital pillar of cooperation and supported economic partnership, Modi said India would enlarge the ASEAN-India Science and Technology Development Fund from the current Dollars one million to USD 5 million.

Earlier, wooing foreign investors, Prime Minister Modi today promised reforms “with speed and boldness” along with a transparent and predictable tax regime and protection of intellectual property rights. ASEAN’s economy continues to forge ahead with dynamism and energy. Now, it is India’s turn. And we know that our time has come. We are at a take-off stage. “That is why I am here to invite you”.

After his speech, Obama visited a school where numerous children are Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar.

“They are terrorists and should be confronted as such, with the full force of the law”.

Mr. Abe said that Japan was partnering India in a number of initiatives such as the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), which had transformative potential. Modi will address the East Asia Summit tomorrow.

He added: “We do not impose our culture on others… we think together and move together with the local people”.

“You can set an example”, Obama said.

This story corrects Japan’s financial pledge. “The answer is to do trade the right way – and that’s what TPP does”, he said.

Obama has tried to keep the focus on promoting what he says are his successful efforts to expand US ties to Asia, specifically the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.

Bilateral trade between China and ASEAN countries reached 397.2 billion USA dollars in the first 10 months of 2015, while 14.3 percent of China’s overseas investment went to ASEAN countries by the end of 2014, making China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation the most substantial and fruitful in East Asia, said Gao. “They are terrorists.”US President Barack Obama condemned the violence typified by the “appalling” jihadist hostage siege in Mali that left at least 21 dead, including an American citizen”.

‘This barbarity only stiffens our resolve to meet this challenge, ‘ he said in Kuala Lumpur. This came a week after Islamic State militants killed 129 people in coordinated attacks in Paris.

He suggested evolving specific plans for cooperation with the 10-member grouping in key areas of maritime security, counter-piracy and humanitarian and disaster relief.

He spoke in Malaysia during a regional summit.

Malaysia’s prime minister has used his opening speech at the 27th ASEAN Summit to lash out at those who commit extremism and terrorism, saying that Malaysia was ready to provide any help towards eliminating a “new evil that blasphemed Islam”.

The attacks included the bombings and assaults in Paris and Beirut, the bombing of a Russian airliner in Egypt, and the taking of captives in Bamako, Mali, on Friday.…

Afghan owned reconciliation process, challenges, and way forward were also discussed during the meeting.

Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif held meetings with top United States defence officials at Pentagon, with defence cooperation between the two countries dominating the discussion, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Lt Gen Asim Bajwa tweeted on Wednesday.

Senator McCain lauded the efforts, sacrifices and steadfastness of the Pakistan armed forces, especially the leadership of Gen Raheel, in fighting terrorists on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Often switching to a dark suit instead of a military uniform, Sharif met Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan, defense secretary Ash Carter, secretary of state John Kerry, and members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in between engaging his military counterparts. For the first time since the nascent peace process in Afghanistan collapsed in August, Pakistan blamed Kabul government for “leaking information” that led to the fall of talks with the Taliban.

He further stated that Pakistan was a significant ally and U.S. will continue its support for the country in the fight against terrorism. “America will help Pakistan in every way to curb terrorism inside Pakistan”, ISPR told the press.

General Raheel highlighted the Pakistan’s perspective of regional security and reiterated the desire to solidify Pak-US relations based on mutual interest and respect.

The Army Chief discussed defence cooperation, strengthening military to military relations, regional security, need for enhanced coordination and increased training exchanges during meeting with top U.S. military officials.

Gen. Sharif, during his visit, will also meet vice-president Joe Biden.…